HRT continues search for oil in Namibia

07 Aug 2013 08:50

WINDHOEK, 07 AUG (NAMPA) - Brazilian-owned oil and gas exploration company High Resolution Technology (HRT) has announced the spudding of the Moosehead-1 well, the third offshore well in its exploratory drilling campaign in Namibia.
This well is targeting the Moosehead Prospect, located about 197 kilometres south-west of Lüderitz in the Karas Region.
The term spud in oil drilling refers to the very start of drilling on a new well.
The total time estimated for the completion of the operations is approximately 53 days, HRT Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Milton Franke said in a media statement issued on the companys website on Tuesday.
After drilling our first two wells in the Walvis Basin, we are now moving to the Orange Basin to drill our third well, and test a giant structure where the target reservoirs are equivalent to the Santos Basin sub-salt prospects, considered analogues. We start this well with the same optimism that has guided us to design these three exploration wells test, said Franke.
The main objective of this well is to test the oil potential of Barremian-aged carbonate reservoirs, expected to be equivalent to Brazilian and Angolan pre-salt reservoirs.
Several source rocks are expected to be penetrated, including the Aptian source rock, which is anticipated to be oil-generating, according to HRTs geochemical modelling.
The Moosehead-1 well is situated at a water depth of 1 727 metres (m), and will be drilled to a projected total depth of 4 100m by the Transocean Marianas semi-submersible rig.
HRT is the operator of 10 blocks offshore Namibia, which is contained in four petroleum licences.
GALP Energia, with 14 per cent participating interest, is HRTs partner in the drilling of the first three wells of the current exploration campaign.
Meanwhile, the company said in May this year that it failed to find commercially viable quantities of oil in the first of three wells off Namibia's coast.
The company's geologist founder, Marcio Mello, who resigned as CEO on 10 May 2013, was quoted as saying in media reports then that the closely-watched Namibian prospects may hold about 10 billion barrels of oil, enough to supply all the needs of the United States of America (USA) for a year-and-a-half.
HRT found that oil showed, but no commercial reservoir was found in the Walvis basin at its Wingat-1 well, while the Murombe-1 probe was dry.
The Moosehead-1 well is situated offshore Namibia in the Orange Basin, and located in Petroleum Exploration License 24 (PEL 24).
(NAMPA)
PC/AS/TK